UK fashion magazine Lula is celebrating its 5th birthday this month in its own inimitable style (gently kitsch, sugary-sweet…roll out the soft focus, add a wash of dreamy haze and stir in some guileless sexuality…) with a Lula Loves pop-up shop in collaboration with the colossus of retail aristocracy Harvey Nichol’s.

The store – designed and produced by Fiona Leahy and curated by Lula founder Leith Clark – features a selection of Clark’s (soon to be your) favourite things including one-off pieces by Rodarte, Erdem, Charles Anastase, Miu Miu, Lover and Sonia Rykiel, some insanely covetable cult archive revivals (notably the Miu Miu glitter shoe) as well as a selection of books and music from the renowned artist/ writer/ film maker Liz Goldwyn and the insanely talented illustrator Daisy de Villeneuvealong with other illustrious members of the Clarkian inner-circle (Derek Blasberg, Melissa Auf Der Mauer…)

The whole set up, found in the newly opened concept space on the fourth floor, is sheerLula magic – a celebration of the ethereal, whimsical and beautiful. Well(I’m not sure how much I can stress this!) worth a visit, even if it is only to briefly exchange the non-stop monotony of the real world for a nostalgic jaunt through a sigh-provoking wonderland.
In fact I love it so much I’m considering relocating from my beloved E2 to planet Lula.

Images with profuse thanks to Style Bubble; click through to view more Lula gorgeousness (one of these days I shall get my hands on a half decent camera) and/or for the inside scoop (plus pics) on the launch night head over to Fashion Bite.

The Lula Loves pop-up shop is open in-store and online until the 1st August.

Louboutin’s a/w lookbook just minced provocatively into my inbox flashing its trademark scarlet soles (oh, I do love it when that happens) and has quite literally thrown me into raptures. And who am I to deny the shoe-loving public, the fetishists and the fashion-hungry their fix of the latest offerings from the Captain of cobblers, the suzerain of shoedom, the head honcho of heels? No. I simply couldn’t do that to you. So here it is…

Head over to cocolee.com to see more of the range (no really, do) sans the very beautiful, visually stunning, yet slightly distracting, set designs).

Hot on the heels (do excuse the pun) of yesterday’s Kirkwood x Liberty post comes the news of another designer shoe collaboration from London’s fashion fairy godmother…and this time it’s the incomparable Christ of cobblers Manolo Blahnik working miracles in the design seat – phew, my tootsies are all a tingle!

If, as Belinda Carlisle is oft heard wailing to half empty discotheque dance-floors at 1am, ‘heaven is a place on earth,’ I’ve a strong feeling that place would be the ethereal treasure-filled paradise that is Liberty’s – not some godforsaken holiday resort lorded over by hellish beings in red coats with faces forever frozen in a rictus grin so terrifying even the blind are reduced to tears. So, on behalf of shoephiliacs the world over – Thank You Liberty!

The – don’t-call-it-a-pop-up-shop – ‘World of Manolo’ hits Liberty’s on the 10th of September and is open to worshippers for 3 months…a definite ‘dear Santa…’ if ever there was one!

When I first heard about this collaboration back in January I must admit to doing a goofy little dance in sheer jubiliation…a Kirkwood capsule collection, signature structural platforms, ravishingly resplendent in mouth-wateringingly gorgeous Liberty prints? (Yes. Want. Please.)

Bounty Platform Sandal

Santa Maria Platform Sandal

Santa Maria Peep Toe Shoe

The collection, in honour of the 50th anniversary of the opening of Liberty’s Carnaby Street store, features two iconic Liberty florals – the Bounty and the Santa Maria – in two eponymous Kirkwood styles; architectural cutaway platform sandals with super chic cigarette heels, or the classic peep toe pump.

Available now exclusively at Liberty stores and on the Liberty website…get hot-footing: a Kirkwood shoe is the shoe-lover’s shoe…they’re unlikely to hang around!

Award-winning atelier extraordinaire, sixties sartorial pioneer and Commander of the British Empire, no less. It has to be Zandra Rhodes – she of the brighter than bright barnet (attention-grabbing green, punchy pink, pillarbox red) – is that rarest of flowers, a true-blue home-grown fashion virtuoso, and boy does she have flair…

Her trademark colour clashes, mind-boggling print combinations and penchant for blow-your-pretty-little-eyes-out (whilst simultaneously knocking-your-socks off) brights, and feminine yet outrageously dramatic aesthetic are hitting all the right buttons trend-wise this season, so it seems only fitting – auspicious even – for the release of the shoe collaboration of the summer.

These utterly stunning, gob-smackingly beautiful booties are my out-and-out favourite…Wear with a super sleek-casual silk jumpsuit a la DKNY (look for peg-leg effect ties at the ankle for a neo-sports twist), or a pair of Alexander Wang-inspired joggers a slouchy racer-back and an oversized varsity jacket for totally covetable catwalk appeal.

To say I’m excited about this collection would be a grave and monumental understatement: Zandra RhodesPLUS couture footwear?! Frankly, I’m surprised I haven’t wet myself in a tumultuous flurry of feverish elation.

Crash landing on the back of Summer’s neo-sports utility hoedown (cast your mind back to the reworked-neoprene surfer dolls at Proenza Schouler, Prada’s perspex wonderland and vivid high-shine brights at Versace) the future has gone well and truly futuristic. Visionary space-age styling in ultramodern fabrics, sci-fi structure and austere tribalism. It’s fashion Jim…but not as we know it…

Chanel a/w 2010

Balenciaga a/w 2010

Both Chanel and Balenciaga offered up a pared down post-apocalyptic white-wash, punctuated with gaudy geometry in pop-art brights and future-proof footwear. My season favourite has to be Lagerfeld’s sexy Go-go boot /stiletto hybrid: alien Ice Queen meets PVC sex kitten in an uber mod sartorial supernova.

Tessa Edwards a/w 2010

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